For too long the disastrous policies of the War on Drugs have been justified in the name of protecting young people without granting them space to speak for themselves. Catalyst is an unprecedented educational initiative that brings together youth from across the Americas to discuss the historical, social, and political dimensions of the War on Drugs. This past July, the inaugural session of the program brought seventeen young people from the US, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to Cuernavaca, Mexico. Over the course of 18 days, the students engaged in a transnational and critical analysis of the War on Drugs grounded in their own personal experiences of the conflict.

We continue to build a curriculum that is already starting to have a life of its own amongst students and educators across the Americas. We recognize that the content of this course comes from a series of dialogues with educators activists and scholars, some of whom are here at this University. We would like to invite the Mexico Center community to engage in a roundtable discussion to continue to generate an open and evolving curriculum. The event will include a short film made about the course, followed by an open dialogue. We invite all those concerned with creating new narratives about the War on Drugs to come be a part of Catalyst.